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After suffering six months, Mostafa Mir Ebrahimi has died from pressures in prison.Mostafa Mir Ebrahimi was born February 22, 1987 in Tehran. Six months ago, Mostafa was arrested and taken to an unknown location by regime forces while he was at Neda Agha Soltan’s grave site.Mostafa’s friends who witnessed the arrest informed his family about the news. But after six months of efforts to search [for answers], the regime refused to release any information to his family. Mostafa’s name was not registered in any prisons or official lists for the arrested.After the six months, and a few days before the release of the forensic report, Mostafa’s father learned [of the death]. The regime has not allowed Mostafa’s body to be delivered to his family.Regime agents stated that they will first bury Mostafa before giving the family the address to the grave site.Translation by: Laila M. Persian2English.com

According to Parvin Mokhtareh, her son Koohyar Goodarzi continues to resist heavy pressures to accept charges of Moharebeh (waging war against God). He has insisted that all of his media and human rights activities have been legal.Mokhtareh told Hammihan News: “On Thursday, after waiting several hours, I was able to have a seven minute visit with him. Unlike the previous visit, Koohyar looked tired and distressed and his lips were dry.”According to Mokhtareh, during the short visit, her son stated that he is currently under heavy pressure to accept the Moharebeh charge, but he continues to reject the false accusation and insists that all his activities have been within the law.Mokhtareh added, “Compared to last week’s visit, my son had lost a considerable amount of weight. When I asked him about it, he jokingly replied that he has been exercising.”Two months after his arrest, Goodarzi’s lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei has not been able to meet with his client or review his file.The mother of the detained CHRR member said she wants the authorities to stop accusing the children of Iran of false accusations. “With Nowruz approaching, we do not even know what our children have been accused of and no one (authorities) wants to be accountable,” she said.Koohyar Goodarzi remains in Tehran’s Evin prison since his arrest on December 20, 2009.Translation by: RAHANA

I watched and read Ms. Christiane Amanpour’s interview with you. I read your comments on the imprisoned journalists many times, and each time, I was surprised more than before. You may be completely unaware of the records of the imprisoned journalists. Or maybe you are aware but prefer to present your preferred version of the facts.

In the interview, Christiane Amanpour tells you that more than 90 journalists are in prison in Iran today, the highest number of imprisoned journalists in the world, and then asks you why this has happened. You said the reason for their imprisonment was not because they protested, but because of the violence and damage they inflicted on people’s properties.

Christiane Amanpour asked you whether journalists have been imprisoned simply for having been present on the streets to observe what was happening. You said, “No reporter or journalist has been imprisoned for journalism. But if a journalist has been advocating violence, he/she has been prosecuted by the judiciary.”

I am writing you to inform you where the records of myself, my spouse, and several other colleagues of mine can be found. Please go to the Revolutionary Court branch 26 on Shariati Avenue and also pay a visit to the same court’s branch 15. You are the head of the judiciary’s human rights headquarters. The respectable judges in those branches are sure to make our records available to you.

Please leaf through the records of my spouse, Bahman Amhadi-Amouie. See if and when he ever destroyed public property. Also have a look at Massoud Bastani’s record in branch 15. Also, don’t forget the records of Saied Laylaz and Ahmad Zeidabadi. Visit Evin prison’s 3rd interrogation branch and ask for Shiva Nazar Ahari’s record. Which one of these people has resorted to violence or destroyed public property? These are not the only journalists who have been imprisoned for their professional activities.

If you have the time, take a look also at my record, for I was in prison for sixty days and now I am awaiting my trial. I don’t know where my record is, but it should not be difficult to find. If you find the slightest evidence that I have resorted to destruction or violence, or even advocated violence, I will voluntarily spend the rest of my life in Evin prison.

One of the interrogators in charge of my file once spoke to me and condemned the destruction that had taken place on the streets. I responded that I too condemned the destruction, but asked the interrogator if he meant that I or my spouse was in prison for involvement in the destruction. The interrogator who, unlike many other interrogators at Evin’s ward 209 [where political prisoners are held], always had a cheerful and smiling face, and compared to some of his colleagues, was also fairly polite. He laughed and said, “No, I didn’t mean that. You and your husband are not competent enough to set fire to anything or destroy it.”

I said, “Thank God that we’re not competent enough to do such things.”

All the charges in Bahman Ahmadi-Amouie’s records have to do with his profession as a journalist. You have said that no journalist has been imprisoned because of attending a gathering. One of the most important charges against me and my spouse is that we attended a few gatherings as reporters, carrying our professional IDs and assignment letters from newspapers where we worked.

Now, Bahman has been sentenced to jail for, in Christiane Amanpour’s words, “watching the gatherings.” The other charge against my spouse is “conspiracy against national security”, based on his position as editor of Khordad-e Now website. The website was shut down days after the [June 2010 presidential] election.

You see? Every page of his record has something to do with his profession as a journalist.

I do not know about judicial matters as much as you do, but I have learned enough to know that “conspiracy” requires secret activities, and I cannot understand how one can engage in secret activities through journalism and publishing material on an internet site. Is there anything as public as journalism? How could open work in the media be construed as conspiracy and secret activity against national security?

Now, if you still have the time and patience, please leaf through my spouse’s folder. Some “moral evidence” of “conspiracy against national security” was charged against him. Do you know what evidence has been cited to support that charge? His contribution to “extremist” newspapers such as Nowrouz, Yas-e Now, and Khordad. Those were also journalistic activities; weren’t they? I cannot understand how contribution to newspapers that were published ten to twelve years ago, with the government’s permission, can be considered criminal evidence against my spouse in 2009.

Please be patient and leaf through his record a little bit more. Another piece of “moral evidence” presented to prove the charge of “conspiracy” against Bahman Ahmadi-Amouie is that in July 1999, he was briefly present at the University of Tehran dormitory [where there was a clash between security forces and student protesters]as a reporter. His reports were published in the newspaper where he worked at the time. Could this be taken as “moral evidence” of “conspiracy against national security” in June 2009?

There are also other charges against Bahman Ahmadi-Amouie: his critical articles about the ninth administration [led by Mr. Ahmadinejad], written within the framework of the constitution, have been described as “insults against the president.” The critical articles have now led to an imprisonment and lashing sentence.

Mr Larijani, around seventy journalists are now in the prisons of the Islamic Republic, and many others, like me, are free on bail, lacking any security. We are afraid that anything that we write may be used as evidence of “propaganda against the system” or “conspiracy against national security.” My colleagues and I try to write as little as possible.

When I showed this open letter to several colleagues before its publication, they all warned me against publishing it. They said, “Because of this letter, you might end up back in prison. You might end up with a bigger record in court and a longer prison sentence.”

In spite of all that, Mr Larijani, I have decided to publish this letter, because I still hope that if my voice reaches you, you will pause for a moment, only for a moment, and try to restore the rights of my colleagues.

I still have a little hope left. I hope that you may be saddened by the fact we [Iranians] have broken the world record of jailed journalists, in front of China that has a population of more than a billion.

HRANA – Student activist Pakhshan Azizi’s mental and physical health has been deteriorating since going on hunger strike a few days ago to protest his uncertain situation in prison.

[Prior to his arrest] Pakhshan Azizi was a social work major at Azad University of Tehran. He was arrested on November 16, 2009 for participating in a gathering to protest Ehsan Fattahian’s execution at the University of Tehran.

With three months and ten days gone by since his arrest, Pakhshan Azizi still sits in prison under “temporary arrest.”

Committee of Human Rights Reporters - Women’s rights activist Somayeh Rashidi was released from Evin prison today. Rashidi was detained at Evin prison for over two months.

Rashidi’s lawyer Afrooz Maghzi and Zohreh Arzani were denied access to their client and the case remained unresolved in the Revolutionary Court.

On December 20, 2009, Somayeh Rashidi was summoned to the Revolutionary Court where she was arrested and taken to Evin prison.

Somayeh Rashidi is a member of the One Million Signatures Campaign. Additionally, based on the star system in universities, Rashidi was banned from continuing her education. Rashidi was in the process of completing her senior year in the women’s studies undergraduate program.

CHRR - Student Activist Ali Kantoori Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison. Ali Kantoori’s lawyer was notified of the 15-year prison sentence on February 23, 2010. The student activist and his lawyer have 20 days to file an appeal. During his trial, student activist Ali Kantoori denied all charges, and according to his lawyer, there was no evidence in the file that pointed to his guilt.

Kantoori’s case had been originally assigned to branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran but was sent later to the Sanandaj court.

Ali Kantoori was arrested in December of 2007 near his house in Qazvin and released on $150,000 (USD) bail after spending five months in Evin prison and Ghezel Hesar prison. This is the second prison sentence for the student activist, who had previously received a 32 months for other national security related charges.

In August 2009, Kantoori’s house was raided by six plainclothes agents who seized a number of his personal belongings after searching the house.

Noshabe amiri:As we speak, 11 women journalists are being detained for incredibly strange accusations and charges, focused on other people. They are for example charged with working with the PMOI, for example and in the case of Ms.Mahsa Jazini , is one such example, this is as she has repeatedly reiterated that the charges are in contradiction to her point of view. As you know they have arrested Mrs. Hengameh Shahidi once again after she was bailed out…

Iman Mirzazadeh, the lawyer of Asghar Khandan, announced that this journalist had been sentenced to two years of prison and 74 lashes. He was charged with spreading propaganda against the government and disrupting public order. (Jaras Website – Feb. 25, 2010)

Kambiz Norouzi, a journalist and the head of the Legal Committee of the Journalist's Association in Iran was sentenced to two years of prison and 74 lashes.Seyed Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatayi, his lawyer said that the 26th branch of the Revolutionary Court charged his client with spreading propaganda against the government and disrupting public order and that he has filed for an appeal. (ISNA state-run news agency – Feb. 26, 2010)

Hengameh Shahidi, a journalist and women's rights activists was once again arrested on Thursday February 25 by intelligence agents.Mohammad Mostafayi, her lawyer wrote in his weblog that Hengameh Shahidi was summoned to the intelligence agency yesterday and was arrested today after going to the agency. She was transferred to Evin Prison and the reason for her arrest is unclear. Her lawyer also said that his client is not in a suitable mental state. (Kalameh Website – Feb. 26, 2010)

Mehdi Khodayi, a member of the Shahre Rey Free University's Islamic Association and human rights activist was sentenced to four years of prison by the 15th branch of the Revolutionary Court. The announcement of his sentence comes more than one year after his trial which was held in 2008. (Human Rights Activists in Iran – Feb. 26, 2010)

Some of the field elements of the seditions who write messages and slogans on walls in an organized manner in some provinces were arrested.Agents were able to identify a number of these people in the province of Hamedan. (Fars state-run News Agency – Feb. 26, 2010)

A number of women who were arrested in the Ashura (December 27, 2009) protests and the days before and after February 11 (anniversary of the Iranian revolution) are under intolerable and inhumane conditions in solitary cells in the Women's Section of Gohardasht Prison in Karaj.

Currently at least three of them are in solitary cells. They have been transferred to solitary cells in the women's section because solitary cells in the Sepah section are full. Intelligence agents mentally and psychologically torture them and intend to force them to give face confessions in order to issue heavy sentences against them. The names of some of these women are:

1- Fatemeh Veisi, arrested on Ashura and taken to solitary cells in the women's section. A number of her family members have been executed by the regime because of their political beliefs.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has obtained a copy of a letter by an imprisoned student, sentenced to 15 years, which demonstrates the utter lack of evidence against him as well as the arbitrary nature of the show trial convicting him. The letter, by Seyed Zia Nabavi, is written to the head of Judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani from inside Evin prison’s ward 350, demanding a fair appeals hearing."This document provides significant evidence of how Iranian Judiciary doles out lengthy and unjust prison sentences for young people, without any evidence against them,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the Campaign’s spokesperson…In addition to Nabavi, hundreds face similar prosecutions or have already been sentenced.Among Nabavi’s colleagues, the Campaign is seriously concerned about the fates of Somieh Rashidi, Shiva Nazarahari, Saeed Jalaiefar, Mahdieh Golroo, Majid Dari, Peyman Aref, and Koohyar Goudarzi…Nabavi reveals that he and seven other active members of the “starred” students group are in detention and being coerced to admit that the group was initiated by the OPPOSITION group Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), which has a history of armed struggle against the Iranian government.The charge of “communication and cooperation” with the MKO is apparently based on the fact that one of Nabavi’s relatives is a member of this organization abroad. Nabavi points out that there is no evidence of his cooperation with the group and he should not be unfairly punished for another person’s affiliation with the group. (International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran – Feb. 22, 2010)

Mostafa Mir-Ibrahimi died after six months of pressure and torture in prison. He was born in February 1988 in Tehran. Mostafa was arrested six months ago by the gravesite of Neda and was taken to an unknown location. His friends who were with him at the time informed his family of his arrest but during these six months, despite his family's desperate pursuits, regime forces gave them no information on their son. His name was not even registered in any of the official detention centers. After six months, a few days ago, his father was summoned to the coroner's to identify his body. His father identified the body but agents refrained from handing over Mostafa's body for burial. Officials have not given any information to the family regarding his death or where he was killed and only told them that they will bury him themselves and will only give them the gravesite address. (Peik-e-Iran Website – Feb. 24, 2010)

Sina Golchin who was arrested on Ashura was sentenced to 8 years of prison by the Revolutionary Court.He did not have a lawyer in court and only after his sentence was issued he was able to acquire a lawyer to request an appeal. (Human Rights Activists in Iran – Feb. 23, 2010)

According to reports, the supporters of the Mourning Mothers are under severe psychological torture to make false confessions.There are interrogated for long periods of time in ward 209 of Evin Prison at night. Intelligence agent interrogators make false accusations against them to subject them to pressure and demand that they accept the accusations. If they do not, they will be subjected to severe physiological and physical torture.The interrogators pry into the most private issues of these women and use insulting and indecent language against some of them trying to break their morale.These interrogators insist that the mother's peaceful gatherings in Laleh Park are a crime and try to issue heavy sentences for them in this way. These interrogators also use the mother's personal relationship with each other and try to create an aura of distrust amongst them. They have been told that they were arrested to prevent further gatherings (in Laleh Park).Elham Ahsani, 27, who is the youngest Mourning Mother supporter, is subjected to more pressure. Interrogators have even told her that she has to change the private course of her life. These interrogators are trying to force her into false confessions to issue heavy sentences for her in the future. (Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran – Feb. 23, 2010)

Pakistan played a role in helping Iran arrest its most wanted Sunni militant Abdolmalek Rigi who was seized onboard a flight from Dubai, Islamabad's ambassador to Tehran Mohammad Abbasi said on Wednesday.'I must tell you that such action cannot be carried out without the cooperation of Pakistan. I am happy that he has been arrested,' Abbasi told a media conference at Islamabad's mission in Tehran. (AFP - Feb 24, 2010)

Iran is all over the news again. It is not possible to stray away from Iran if your daily routine includes reading newspapers and visiting opinion websites. Iran and controversy have been wedded together since the Islamic revolution in 1979. In recent months, however, Iran has become the center of global attention thanks to the madness of its regime to build a nuclear weapon.

Kyrgyzstan has confirmed that Iran forced one of its planes to land and arrested two of the passengers, apparently confirming Tehran's claim that it seized a top Sunni militant on a flight to the Central Asian country, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.Taalaibek Turumbekov, deputy chief of Kyrgyzstan Aba Joldoru, the national airline, told RFE/RL that a plane flying from Dubai was made to land in the southern Iranian city of Bandar Abbas on February 23, escorted by two Iranian jets.

he head of the Sistan & Baluchistan Judiciary said that "upon the completion of the judicial case of this mohareb (enemy of God punishable by death) the divine punishment will be carried out for him (Abdolmalek Rigi) and other members of this group". (Fars News Agency – Feb. 25, 2010)

Iran on Sunday expelled a Greek steward working for a domestic airline after he argued with flight passengers over a 'Persian Gulf' naming row, Fars news agency reported…According to Mehr, another Iranian news agency, Transport Minister Hamid Behbahani has said the entire 'foreign crew of this flight must be prevented from continuing to work in Iran'.Behbahani also warned foreign airlines of Arab nations against the 'use of such a term while flying over Iranian airspace', Mehr said. 'If you use this wrong term, you will be prevented from flying'.Mehr said Behbahani has asked Iran's civil aviation authority to 'reprimand' Kish Airline officials. (AFP Feb 21, 2010)

According to the News Network of Christians in Isfahan, on February 2, intelligence and security forces in Isfahan arrested Father Wilson Isavi, the head of the Assyrian Church in Kermanshah in his friend's house in Shahin Shahr. This arrest was carried out without a previous warning and there is so far no information on his whereabouts or any legal order for his detention. (Iran Press News Website – Feb. 21, 2010)

According to reports, 50-year-old Majid Rezayi, a former political prisoner in the 80's was arrested in his home by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and taken to Evin Prison's section 209. There has been no information on his condition since his arrest.Intelligence agents stormed his home on December 31, 2009 at 5:30 am while his wife and children were asleep and arrested him. Five agents came into his home in this violent attack and several other agents were monitoring his home from the outside.When his family asked the reason for his arrest, they were told that he was arrested because his child and brother were in Camp Ashraf and because his satellite dish was set to receive Simaye Azadi TV (banned TV channel which belongs to the opposition in exile).The Rezayi family has gone to the Revolutionary Court and Evin Prison almost on a daily basis to get information on Rezayi's condition but not only are they not given any answers, they are insulted and threatened as well. (Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran – Feb. 20, 2010)

The last trial for five people arrested on Ashura who were sentenced to 'moharebeh' (enmity with God) and having links to the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran and monarchist groups was held in the Revolutionary Court on Saturday.In this trial, three people were charged with moharebeh by the Prosecutor and according to the Islamic Penal Court, the death sentence has been determined for them.This is while there is no information on their identities and there is fear that they will be executed in secret.Yesterday, Daily News Website disclosed the identity of one of them identifying him as Omid Dana, a 26-year-old man who was arrested in the protests on Ashura. He has been reportedly sentenced to death on the basis of a film that was displayed in the court. (Peik-e-Iran Website – Feb. 20, 2010)

The deputy prosecutor of the Revolutionary Court in Ahwaz said that 38 death sentences were carried out in the year 1388 (March 2009 to March 2010), as well as a number of sentences for the amputation of legs or arms."From the beginning of this (Persian) year, 38 death sentences and four amputation sentences have been carried out by the Implementation Branch of Retribution Sentences in this court", he said. (Mehr News Agency – Feb. 20, 2010)

The body of Majid Amiri, an Azeri poet and an employee of the Eastern Azerbaijan Bureau of Calculations who was killed suspiciously on January 27 was found in his home garage.According to those close to him, this Azeri employee was summoned and threatened to death for his serious pursuit of the management corruption of top officials in the province. The heads of this bureau had banished Amiri to Yazd for some time (because of his activities).After his body was taken to the coroner's, intelligence agents forced his family to bury his body without a detailed autopsy. These agents threatened and banned his family from pursuing the real cause of his death.According to those close to this Azeri poet, the signs of beatings and dried blood were on his body and his tongue had been cut out. (Savalan Sassi Website – Feb. 20, 2010)

Haj Daadollah Morad Zehi who was arrested in June by security forces in Baluchistan was executed on Saturday February 20 in Zahedan.Morad Zehi was handed over to the Intelligence Agency after his arrest. He was tortured in prison and despite presented evidence showing his innocence, his execution sentence was carried out.Morad Zehi is the uncle of Khodayar Rahmat Zehi who was executed two weeks ago with a sentence from the Revolutionary Court. (Human Rights Activists in Iran – Feb. 21, 2010)

The new commander of the State Security forces in the Greater Tehran District said, "Those who break the law in the last Wednesday of the (Persian) year will be firmly confronted".Brigade General Hossein Sajedi Nia said, "Those who break the law in the last Wednesday of the year will be arrested and detained until the end of the New Year".The head of the SSF said regarding using Bassij forces, "We will use these forces when needed because Bassij Forces are from the people and give services to the people at not cost". (Tabnak state-run Website – Feb. 21, 2010)(Note: The last Wednesday of the Persian year called 'Chaharshanbeh Suri' is the ancient Persian tradition of the Feast of Fire celebrated on the last Wednesday of the year.)

In a night party in Mashhad, 20 girls and boys were arrested by security forces. According to reports, Mashhad police arrested 20 people in this nightly meeting in the Goldasht Art Center in this city. Some of the participants ran away from the emergency staircase.Police investigations into the organizers of such nightly meetings are ongoing. (Cyrus News Agency – Feb. 22, 2010)

Majid Asadi, a student of Alameh University who was trialed last year on charges of acting against national security in the 15th branch of the Revolutionary Court was sentenced to four years of prison.He was arrested last year and put on trial by Judge Salavati on charges of acting against national security by organizing gatherings. (Human Rights Activists in Iran – Feb. 22, 2010)

A member of the Office for Consolidating Unity and the head of the Gilan branch of this organization was sentenced to three years of prison.Seyed Kuhzad Ismaili who was serving his four months of prison in the Rasht Lakan Prison was sentenced to three years of prison on charges of insulting the leader and spreading propaganda against the government. (Advar News – Feb. 22, 2010)

According to reports, on Monday, political prisoner Mansour Osalu, the head of the Tehran Bus Company Syndicate was almost killed.Osalu was in the prison yard in section 4 of Gohardasht Prison on February 22, talking to two other prisoners when he was attacked from behind with a sharp object. He was saved by other prisoners. This attack was carried out in front of a prison guard named Hassan Pour and another guards named Moradi Sar. These guards did nothing to prevent the attack and only confiscated the sharp object from the attacker and then released him after political prisoners protested the attack and their inaction. The attacker was still trying to attack Mr. Osalu afterwards shouting, "I will kill you".This person had tried to physically clash with Osalu before this a number of times outside the prison shop and even punched him in the chest a few times but Osalu had not reacted.The assailant who attacked Osalu is Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, a member of the Revolutionary Guards Corps who is in prison for killing his wife. (Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran – Feb. 22, 2010)

Majid Tavakoli was taken to the Revolutionary Court on Sunday with torture signs clearly evident above his right eyebrow. He did not know why he was taken to court. Tavakoli, who was wearing prison clothes from the security section 209 in Evin Prison, said he has been kept in solitary in section 240 of this prison for the past 3 weeks. This is while this student activist was kept in a solitary cell in section 209, three weeks before that.This Amir Kabir University student was summoned to court again even as he was previously sentenced to 8 years and six months of prison, a 5 year ban on political activities and a 5 year ban from leaving the country in a trial behind closed doors. (Bamdad Khabar – Feb. 22, 2010)

According to reports, a prisoner in section 1 of Gohardasht Prison in Karaj was killed after being brutally tortured by prison officials.On Monday, February 22, Yavar Khoda Doust was killed after being tortured by Kermani, the head of the Prison Intelligence Department and Faraji, his deputy. His body was taken to the infirmary and is currently in the prison morgue.Yavar and Latif Khoda Doust are two jailed brothers who were detained in hall 3, section 1 of this prison. Some time ago they were transferred from hall 3 to solitary cells in hall 2 known as the doghouse. They were taken to solitary after a raid and search in their cells. (Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran – Feb. 22, 2010)

Iran has hanged three convicted drug traffickers, one in the eastern city of Zahedan and the others in the central city of Isfahan, Kayhan newspaper reported on Monday.It said two men were hanged on Saturday in a prison in Isfahan, while the other was executed on Sunday in a Zahedan prison. (AFP - Feb 22, 2010)

Mahmood DelkhastehEarly one morning in 1981, I arrived at the middle school where I taught in Tehran and was informed by two guards from the notorious Evin prison that one of our students had been arrested and would not be returning to school.I knew that his father was a drug dealer, and supposed that he had been arrested on similar charges. It was the height of the post-revolutionary struggle between Iran's revolutionary democratic front led by then-president Abolhassan Banisadr, and the dictatorial front led by the Islamic Republican party and its allies. A few months later, Banisadr was ousted in a coup and I was fired from my teaching post.Later on I learnt that on the same day my former student had been released and recruited as a guard in the same prison. I also learnt from his grandmother that he had not been involved with drugs, but had raped his sister and made her pregnant. At the time, stories of women and girls being raped in prison became so rife that Ayatollah Montazeri sent a team to investigate. They only verified the rumours. Male prison officers – many of them psychotic like my former student – were tasked to rape women, and extensively; one was even nicknamed "hamishe daamaad" (the forever groom).In other words, rape is nothing new to this regime, which even now tries in vain to hide itself behind Islam. However, after last June's uprising, we are observing the emergence of a more widespread form of rape, and one that is also extended to men. This is not to say that it did not exist before, but now we are observing its systematic use. There is little public information about this to date.Abuses at Kahrizak prison, which came to be known as Iran's Abu Ghraib, were exposed only because Mohsen Rooh-al-Amini, the son of a well-established conservative figure, was killed under torture. The regime was forced to close the prison and, later in August 2009, Ayatollah Karubi issued a statement saying, among other things, that some prisoners had been raped. After such exposure, one might have thought the regime would stop this brutal form of torture against its opponents. But victims and witnesses have continued to report its continuation. A few weeks ago, for example, revolutionary guards arrested a group of women that has gathered every Friday night in Laleh Park to protest the detention of their children.While in prison herself, one mother revealed that she saw a teenage boy begging a judge not to sent him back to solitary confinement. When the judge asked why, the boy replied, "because they keep raping me". Two months ago, my friend's son was arrested in a demonstration, and had to wage the fight of his life to prevent being raped by the guards in the car. And on 12 February, Fatemeh Karubi, wife of Ayatollah Karubi, wrote an open letter to Khamenei detailing the arrest of her 38-year-old son when his father's car was attacked at a demonstration on the 31st anniversary of the 1979 revolution. She described how her son was viciously abused, both physically and verbally, in a mosque. The guards threatened to rape him.Why, despite its public exposure, does this regime continue to use rape and the threat of rape as weapons against its opponents, women and men alike? The question has to be understood within its cultural context. The regime knows that killing an opponent will make a martyr of her or him, and may even encourage others to join the struggle. Rape, however, can have devastating effects not only on an individual but on political morale as well. The regime believes that society believes that no one can become a hero for being raped. Within this context it is easier to risk one's life for what one believes in, but difficult to join a protest knowing one might be raped. Also, even this regime finds it difficult to hide the murders of its opponents, but it can often neutralise a dissenter with rape, as most victims are too traumatised and ashamed to make this public.However, it is not at all clear that this threat of shame will remain powerful. Throughout this revolutionary struggle, we are observing astonishing shifts in cultural norms and values, especially in gender relations and in opposition to elements of patriarchy. We saw how the regime's efforts to humiliate a student by publishing a photograph of him dressed in woman's clothes fell flat; in just hours, thousands of other men snapped pictures of themselves in female dress, and published them on the internet to express solidarity. Of course, centuries of patriarchal values and relationships will not vanish overnight. But Iranian society is learning fast that whoever suffers as a result of their struggle against the country's most barbaric regime in the last two centuries has to be seen as a hero.This regime is now fighting for survival, and has no red line left to cross. Since Ahmadinejad's appointment to president and the encroachment of the Revolutionary Guard's generals into the state and the economy, it can safely be considered a military-financial mafia. And like any other form of totalitarian state, it has sought and trained the most dehumanised individuals to become decisive, efficient and effective weapons in this struggle.They are, of course, culpable. But others must be brought to account. Khamenei, as the supreme leader with absolute power over – according to his ideologues like Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi – every Iranian person's life, property and honour, and as the person who openly declared war on protestors after the election, bears ultimate responsibility for these crimes. He has already been accused of murdering his opponents into submission by a German court in the Mykonos trial, and has received numerous letters calling him to account for other crimes and abuses.Fatemeh Karubi's letter is only the latest public example. Human rights organisations also have ample evidence of all sorts of crimes committed against the Iranian people by this regime, and we expect them to soon begin a process of establishing an international court in which Khamenei can be indicted for committing crimes against humanity.